Featured Article
What Does it Mean to be In the Moment?
Not only is living in the current moment magical, the current moment is the only one that truly exists! This concept was a hard one for me to understand when I first learned it, but it’s an idea that can make a huge difference in your life!
There is a very big Spiritual Truth inherent in this message, but we can also approach it logically. As humans, we typically spend most of our time thinking. And if you spend just a moment examining your thoughts, you’ll recognize that most of them are focused either on the past or the future.
It can be so easy to spend a lot of time contemplating your past. We think about the “good ole days” or maybe about some traumatic event that happened to us. We regret things we did, or long for times from our younger years. But consider for a moment: nothing that happened in the past – no matter how momentous, traumatic, life-changing or emotional – is happening now. It doesn’t exist now at all, except in your thoughts.
You probably also spend time planning your future. You may worry about things you need to get done, or play out in your mind how certain meetings or interactions will transpire. Most of us spend time getting worried or excited about something in our future. But once again, are any of these things happening now? No! This, too, is only in your thoughts.
So from this logic, you can see that the only true, real moment is the one happening right now! We always have the choice to remove our focus from the past or the future and just notice the now. How present can you be in this moment? Can you recognize when you’re judging your past or planning your future, and just let that go and be here and now? This really is one of the keys to happiness in life! Most of the time our current moment is just fine, but we create stress and other negative emotions by spending so much time thinking about things that happened in the past or that may or may not happen in the future. If you become more aware of this tendency, you can use that awareness to pull you back into the present moment more often. Try this simple exercise to get started.
Featured Activity
Recognizing thoughts about past and future
Spend a few moments noticing your thoughts. If you like, you can start a timer and do this for 3-5 minutes. Can you see how most thoughts relate to the past or the future somehow? We are always remembering something that happened or thinking about what might happen in the future. If you recognize all of those are only thoughts, you can make space for this present moment.
Sparkling Quote
Over the ages, it has been noted that merely observing the mind tends to increase one's level of consciousness. – David R. Hawkins
